Chemical modification of fibres

Modifications for your needs

Are you looking superior fibres for your application: we have a long history and extensive competence in producing chemically modified fibres for multiple applications.

We always consider technical and economic aspects in our process design in order to fully meet industrial requirements. Sustainability and environmental aspects are also very important to us, and we have a strong background in developing solutions utilizing renewable substances.

Technically and economically feasible solutions

VTT has strong core competences in chemistry and biomass processing. This guarantees that the approach is always holistic and that we know how to utilize different processing equipment in chemical modifications to meet the end-product requirements. Our expertise is in a wide range of different chemical modifications, including esterifications, etherifications, oxidations, grafting reactions and surface-specific fibre tailoring via adsoprtions of functional polymers. In general, we have a strong background in aqueous and/or solvent-free high-consistency chemistries, and by utilising these approaches we may partly or completely eliminate hazardous organic solvents in our processes.

From laboratory to industrial applications

Required laboratory- and pilot-scale equipment for material processing and facilities as well as various analytical instruments for characterization of raw materials and end-products is available at VTT. We have co-operated with various domestic and international companies in different industrial areas including forestry, chemical industry and the construction industry. Some concrete examples are aqueous fibre modifications for papermaking applications, fibre compatibilizations for composites and specific functionalizations of fibres for high-value chemical applications. In addition to that we have actively participated in national and international publicly founded projects. Some examples are FuBio projects (FIBIC), Ecoplast and Ecoshell (EU projects).